Month: December 2017

No. Not really. Haha!

A person posted a question to my Sarahah about my work ethic at home (or it read like that – the question itself was a little different). To answer it in full will be a little lengthy and require some backstory… The question itself is: “How do you manage your time as an at-home artist?” The simplest answer is: I don’t which is in part why I am unsuccessful as a business owner.

The complex answer is I do but not the way you think. I used to be a single stay-at-home mom and artist. Juggling an under 3 toddler plus having my back to the room at all times working at my desk was simply incompatible. I couldn’t get art done. I couldn’t manage my business – I lost business actually because my actions as a businesswoman were flakey at best (I don’t know that my photography business can ever recover). I had to get another job and put my art down for a long time.

Now I have a full time job and do my art on the side. I have to fit art time in-between work, my child, cooking meals, cleaning, laundry, and various other family and work duties. A daily schedule for me is up at 4am, get me and the babe ready, daycare/work, home by 3pm, dinner by 4pm, time with the babe, bath time and then bedtime for the babe at 7pm. I stay up until 8-9pm doing art. On a workday, I get about one to two hours of art depending on how tired I am. To put that in perspective, one adopt takes me about 3 hours to complete, one sketch takes me about an hour to an hour and a half, lining a simple sketch takes an hour, and a full piece of digital or traditional art with background can take about 12 hours… So now you know why I put out so little… On my days off, in-between cooking, cleaning, laundry, and running errands, I try to fit art in but only get about 3 or 4 hours tops each day off I have.

So how do I manage my time as an at-home artist? Badly, but in the best way for the growth of my child. I wish I could do more as an artist – I love doing art! My daughter loves it too and will do art alongside me or read to me while I do art. It’s such a positive experience for the both of us that I wish we had more time for it, but life has to be lived and someone has to clean up the mess haha!